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Today I was a spy. | ||
Tags: Usefulness | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| manny Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6358 days ago 248 posts - 240 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Tagalog Studies: French, German | Message 9 of 27 14 September 2007 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Now the irony makes more sense. They were calling the locals "wai guo ren" (外國人)? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6574 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 27 14 September 2007 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe by foreigner, they meant non-Taiwanese nationals. It does have some truth to the words 外國人 - Nationals outside of the PRC or ROC in this case. Edited by Aritaurus on 14 September 2007 at 7:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6886 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 27 14 September 2007 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes. They were speaking about wai gou ren. they said it with a sour look on their face. Like they thought they were taking a bite of chocolate pudding pie, but instead bit into a cow pie. I thought I was about to hear some "good" slang/colorful language, but that's when my son blew my cover.
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| manny Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6358 days ago 248 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Tagalog Studies: French, German | Message 12 of 27 14 September 2007 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
What I really want to know is what they said about you - after they moved across the room. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7041 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 13 of 27 15 September 2007 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is absolutely my favorite aspect of language learning. The only sad part is, as you advance in skill level and you begin to really hear everything and not just the "gist", you realize most people don't talk about anything really that interesting most of the time. :(
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| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6886 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 27 16 September 2007 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
I know what you mean. I think once I start learning how to read I'm going to be real disappointed when I can actually read a magazine in Chinese. Probably the same lame kind of articles found in US tabloids, just that I'll have no clue who 99% of the "celebrities" are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 15 of 27 04 November 2007 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations! Spying is really a good way to practice listening (evilish smiles)
Did you notice them using some strange words though? Because, given that they're Taiwanese (especially from southern Taiwanese), it's highly probable that they incorporated some Taiwanese terms in their speech. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 16 of 27 04 November 2007 at 4:29am | IP Logged | ||
This is true. People can be banal in languages other than English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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